Introduction: Blessed are the Peacemakers
Derek Poole

Comment
Mark Houston

From the Director
David Porter

Peacemaking
Arthur Chapman

Gentleness: An attribute of Peace
Graham Cheesman

A Long Road to Healing
David Porter

All Taigs are Targets
Neil Smart

God's Holy Warrior
Alwyn Thomson

Book Reviews
Alwyn Thomson David Porter

< Past Issues Archive

GENTLENESS ... An Attribute of Peace
Our society is not gentle. Even naturally gentle individuals can grow hard when 'the troubles' are mentioned, and visitors from outside quickly notice that Northern Irish Christians are not particularly gentle towards each other when they disagree. Yet gentleness is the eighth fruit of the Spirit and the same Greek word is translated meekness in the third beatitude. Violence is the opposite of gentleness. It has always been attractive and, despite the hyping of the 'new man' image, gentleness has always been counter-cultural. We abhor the idea of people being shot with guns, but enjoy James Bond. We hate war but love war novels. The attractiveness of violence probably lies in its connection with power. We must hate it because when we are recipients of violence we experience not just pain but an awful sense of powerlessness. But that does not remove our need to assert ourselves, be significant. The human desire for power is formidable.

Yet gentleness is not a denial of inner strength, it is not doormat material. Jesus before Pilate used gentleness as strength, and Pilate felt it.

The church has a truly awful reputation for using violence inappropriately, seen in the crusades, the burning of dissidents, the support for forced apartheid and much else in its history. However violence is not always incompatible with Christianity. There are times when God is a violent God, and Jesus did violently cleanse the temple. The violence of surgery is occasionally all that is left to the doctor. So there are times when the glory of God and love of our fellow man require us to lay aside gentleness. But these are rare and then even a pure motive is not enough, the Christian must calculate. Martin Luther King had a point when he said, 'I reject violence because the short term gain is always smaller than the long term loss.' This is generally true and, of course, always true for political violence in a democratic situation.

Gentleness, then, is the usual requirement of God. What does this mean? I have three suggestions.

A Carefulness not to Hurt

Our desire should be not to harm anyone by what we say or do unless it is absolutely necessary. This is love in action. The pain of another becomes a pain within. Emotional pain is particularly easily caused, so the gentle person will develop tact, which is simply being able to judge the effect of attitudes, words and deeds and to modify them accordingly. Christian leadership is gentle. Christian attitudes across cultural and community divides are informed by a desire for the attractiveness of gentleness.

A Gentle Spirit

The Bible tells us that there is a way of conducting disputes among Christians. Paul told Timothy to address those who oppose him in a spirit of gentleness (2 Tim 2:25). A contentious spirit is an unnatural cancer within evangelicalism. We have a multitude of people who are 'contending for the faith' and attacking fellow believers for differences of view, usually on secondary matters. As Tozer says, the essentials are blessedly few. Yet love is not rude, is not self-seeking, always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres — is gentle. Nothing is more ridiculous than a person claiming to contend for the cause of Christ in a manner that demonstrates his or her lack of the gifts of the spirit of Christ.

Meekness not Power

Christ's cause is best pursued from a position of human weakness rather than strength, meekness rather than power. Gideon had to learn that the use of large numbers (perhaps a majority) was a disadvantage that had to be jettisoned before God could work. Paul needed to learn that it was only when he was weak that he was strong in God's work. Again and again the church in its history has tried to do God's work from a position of strength or power. Charlemagne forced into baptism the Saxons he conquered. The Jesuits of the late sixteenth century bent their efforts to the conversion of the Daimyos, rulers of Japan. Protestants used the might of the British empire for their own acceptance and protection. But non-Christian means do not easily produce Christians ends and God has chosen the weak to confound the strong, so no flesh may glory in his presence. Let us pray for the fruit of gentleness and remember that, in God's intentions, it is the meek who will inherit this much fought over piece of earth.

Graham Cheesman - the Principal of Belfast Bible College. His previous work included eight years in Nigeria teaching theology and service as a Baptist minister in England.